


Running Water

by p_dottie



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Disabled Character, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 03:11:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4043644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_dottie/pseuds/p_dottie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*I’m an amputee, and when I was getting out of my car I got yelled at by a guy for using the handicap spot so I took off my prosthetic leg and threw it at them. You watched this happen and are laughing so hard you had to use your inhaler. AU*</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running Water

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill from a reference post on tumblr. Not sure if I'm going to continue it or not.  
> As always comments and critiques are always appreciated! If you have any questions or ideas, or if you would like to see this one continued, message me on tumblr at p-dottie.tumblr.com!

Driving with metal feet was about as easy as it sounded. It’s like trying to slam your hand down on your alarm clock in the morning to hit snooze, but you slept on your arm all night and now it’s completely asleep and knocks over everything on your bedside table. But with your feet, and a car instead of an alarm clock, and other cars on the road instead of objects on a table.

 

Thankfully Peridot had been an amputee long before she had been old enough to drive, so she had plenty of time to adjust to the struggle of not having real feet.

 

Her disability was barely even noticeable when she wore the right pants, so half of the people who knew her had no idea that she was completely robotic from mid-thigh down.

 

The only time she didn’t enjoy having a nearly invisible ailment, and this was a very rare occurrence, was when she needed to do shopping of any type.

 

Shopping meant large buildings and even larger parking lots.

 

And larger parking lots meant Peridot having to suck up her pride and use an accessible parking spot.

 

The blue hangtag on her rearview mirror glared at her, the silver clip art of a man in a wheelchair glinting in the sunlight as she pulled into a spot near the sliding glass doors of the mall, swaying side to side slightly when she put her vehicle into park.

 

She opened her door and hopped out of her car, placing her sneaker-covered “feet” on the damp concrete shoulder-width apart so she could brace herself enough to open the rear door of her car to remove the wheelchair she used for longer excursions like this.

 

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

 

Peridot paid no attention to the distant shouting at first, it was common for people to yell across the parking lot to each other. It had nothing to do with her, she figured, probably just some man getting on to his kid or something.

 

“Those spaces are reserved for _actually_ disabled people. You make me sick!”

 

The voice had gotten closer to her, so she had to turn her head to see what was going on. When she came eye to eye with a surly looking middle aged man, things began to click in her mind.

 

It wouldn’t be the first time someone had assumed she had no need for an accessible parking space. Usually once she got her chair out, however, people tended to simmer down. But as she pulled out the chair and assembled it, the man continued to yell.

 

“Oh so now you’re gonna pretend to be paralyzed? You are a disgrace! I can’t stand people like you, you think you’re so special with your ‘chronic pain’ or ‘fibromyalgia’. What nonsense. I fought for this country you know! ”

 

As she clicked the second wheel into place, Peridot stood and faced the man, blood running to her face and rage beginning to fill her. The man advanced on her, spitting out insults.

 

The next few seconds blurred together as Peridot swiftly unhooked her left leg and unceremoniously threw it across ten feet of the parking lot, hitting the stranger square in the chest with a loud thwack.

 

There was a moment where the entire world seemed to still, the wind no longer blowing, the parking lot was completely empty and silent expect for a one-legged young woman and a shocked old man with a fake leg resting on his foot.

 

He seemed to struggle for words for a moment, his mouth opening and closing several times before he finally spoke, his voice much calmer than earlier.

 

“I…apologize, ma’am, I had no idea.”

 

Peridot sighed, hanging her head in defeat. She shouldn’t have acted out in anger, she knew better, but sometimes her nerves just got plucked in the right direction.

 

“It’s fine.” She waved a hand, dismissing the scene, and settled herself in her chair so she could retrieve her leg.

 

The man’s cheeks reddened as he handed her the prosthetic, then shuffled away to his vehicle as quickly as he could manage.

 

Peridot rolled her eyes, reattaching her leg after brushing some dirt off, and made her way into the mall. She stopped on the inside of the automatic doors, a muffled noise distracting her from going over her mental list of items she needed to buy.

 

A heavy set girl wearing an Adidas tank top and gym shorts leaned against the left wall of the welcome area of the mall, a hand covering her mouth and tears coming out of her eyes. Her laughter rocked her large frame, muscles in her arm clenching as she tried-and failed- to quiet herself.

 

“What’s your problem?” Peridot sent a glare her way, her green eyes narrowing suspiciously. She knew good and well the cause of her laughter, the bitch was practically staring a hole through her!

 

The girl sucked in a hard breath, then began choking hard, bending over at the waist and slowly sinking to the floor.

 

For a minute Peridot just watched, breathing deeply to avoid another confrontation, but when the girl started coughing like her lungs were trying to escape her chest, she felt her anger dissipate and rolled over to make sure she wouldn’t die.

 

That would be a horrid obituary- “Obvious lesbian coughs up lung while making fun of legless man-beater.”

 

“Hey, are you gonna make it?” She locked her wheels when she got to be about a foot in front of her, reaching out a hand to the woman in an altruistic gesture not uncommon for Peridot.

 

The stranger went silent as she looked up, then looked at Peridot’s hand and started laughing again.

 

“Did- did you SEE ahahaaackkk,” she paused to cough like she was dying again, “that guy’s _FACE_? SHIT!” She didn’t seem to care that this mall was a public space, likely with children inside, yelling as she pleased and rocking on the floor like a lunatic.

 

Her face began to darken in color, the tan skin of her cheeks turning a deep red as she fought for air, eyes widening in what appeared to be a sudden realization. She looked to her either side quickly, then snatched up a drawstring bag on the floor to her right and rummaged through it, pulling out a red piece of plastic and shoving it between her lips.

 

Peridot didn’t recognize the object as an inhaler until after the girl could breathe again, her laughter dulled to just occasional giggles accompanied by little gasps for air.

 

When she had finally regained her breath, the girl addressed Peridot.

 

“Sorry about that, I just couldn’t help myself. The look on that bigoted asshole’s face when you showed him up- it was priceless! I wish I’d had a camera, I have never seen such an inventive tactic to ward off ableism in my life! Oh, um, I’m Jasper, by the way. What’s your name?” She, Jasper, stood up, extending a hand to Peridot for her to shake in greeting.

 

Peridot was still processing all of this- she had expected the girl to be amused by her being disabled, not by the fact that she had put an ableist in his place. She took note of the way that Jasper made eye contact with her, that even though she sat at least three feet lower than Jasper’s head, she didn’t feel like she was being looked down at. She smiled at Jasper and shook her hand, pleased that for once someone had been laughing _with_ her instead of at her expense.

 

“Peridot. Nice to meet you.”


End file.
